33+ C.P. Cavafy Quotes On Courage, Change And Capitalism

C.P. Cavafy was a Greek poet who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He wrote in the modernist style and is known for his vivid depictions of the ancient Greek world. His poetry often explores themes of identity, nostalgia, and the human condition. Following is our collection on famous quotes by C.P. Cavafy on love, courage, change.

Top 10 C.P. Cavafy Quotes

1. And if you can't shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade it.
2. What shall become of us without any barbarians? Those people were a kind of solution.
3. Body, remember not only how much you were loved, not only the beds you lay on, but also those desires glowing openly in eyes that looked at you, trembling for you in voices.
4. One candle is enough. Its gentle light will be more suitable, will be more gracious when the Shades arrive, the Shades of Love.
5. If you are one of the truly elect, be careful how you attain your eminence.
6. The days of the future stand in front of us Like a line of candles all alight Golden and warm and lively little candles.
7. Roses by the head, jasmine at the feet so appear the longings that have passed without being satisfied, not one of them granted a night of sensual pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.
8. Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory. And if you cannot curb your ambitions, at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously. And the higher you go, the more searching and careful you need to be.
9. And from this marvellous pan-Hellenic expedition, triumphant, brilliant in every way, celebrated on all sides, glorified incomparable, we emerged: the great new Hellenic world.
10. What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today.

C.P. Cavafy Short Quotes

• My life has been awaiting you. Your footfall was my own heart's beat.
• When you set out for Ithaca, ask that your way be long
• From all I did and all I said let no one try to find out who I was.
• From my most unnoticed actions, my most veiled writing - from these alone will I be understood.
• To certain people there comes a day when they must say the great Yes or the great No.
• Arriving there is what you are destined for

C.P. Cavafy Famous Quotes And Sayings

Return often and take me, beloved sensation, return and take me - When memory of the body awakens, and old desire again runs through the blood; when the lips and skin remember, and the hands feel as if they touch again. — C.P. Cavafy

That we've broken their statues, that we've driven them out of their temples, doesn't mean at all that the gods are dead. O land of Ionia, they're still in love with you, their souls still keep your memory. — C.P. Cavafy

On hearing about powerful love, respond, be moved like an aesthete. Only, fortunate as you've been, remember how much your imagination created for you. — C.P. Cavafy

The frivolous can call me frivolous. I've always been most punctilious about important things. And I insist that no one knows better than I do the Holy Fathers, or the Scriptures, or the Canons of the Councils. — C.P. Cavafy

I'm practically broke and homeless. This fatal city, Antioch, has devoured all my money: this fatal city with its extravagant life. — C.P. Cavafy

Nero wasn't worried at all when he heard the utterance of the Delphic Oracle: "Beware the age of seventy-three." Plenty of time to enjoy himself still. He's thirty. The deadline the god has given him is quite enough to cope with future dangers. — C.P. Cavafy

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you. Wise as you have become, with so much experience, you must already have understood what these Ithacas mean. — C.P. Cavafy

Επιθυμίες Σαν σώματα ωραία νεκρών που δεν εγέρασαν και τάκλεισαν, με δάκρυα, σε μαυσωλείο λαμπρό, με ρόδα στο κεφάλι και στα πόδια γιασεμιά -- έτσ' η επιθυμίες μοιάζουν που επέρασαν χωρίς να εκπληρωθούν· χωρίς ν' αξιωθεί καμιά της ηδονής μια νύχτα, ή ένα πρωϊ της φεγγερό. Desires Like beautiful bodies of the dead who had not grown old and they shut them, with tears, in a brilliant mausoleum, with roses at the head and jasmine at the feet -- this is what desires resemble that have passed without fulfillment; without any of them having achieved a night of sensual delight, or a morning of brightness. — C.P. Cavafy

Have Ithaka always in your mind. Your arrival there is what you are destined for. But don't in the least hurry the journey. — C.P. Cavafy

Don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now, work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive — don’t mourn them uselessly. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say it was a dream, your ears deceived you: don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these. — C.P. Cavafy

The holy Cross goes forward; it brings joy and consolation to every quarter where Christians live; and these God-fearing people, elated, stand in their doorways and greet it reverently, the strength, the salvation of the universe, the Cross. — C.P. Cavafy

He wasn't completely wrong, poor old Gemistus (let Lord Andronicus and the patriarch suspect him if they like), in wanting us, telling us to become pagan once again. — C.P. Cavafy

Of what's to come the wise perceive things about to happen. Sometimes during moments of intense study their hearing's troubled: the hidden sound of things approaching reaches them, and they listen reverently, while in the street outside the people hear nothing whatsoever. — C.P. Cavafy

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge. — C.P. Cavafy

Try to keep them, poet, those erotic visions of yours, however few of them there are that can be stilled. Put them, half-hidden, in your lines. — C.P. Cavafy

Give me artificial flowers - porcelain and metal glories - neither fading nor decaying, forms unaging. Flowers of the splendid gardens of another place, where Forms and Styles and Knowledge dwell. I love flowers made of glass or gold, true Art's true gifts, their painted hues more beautiful than nature's, worked in nacre and enamel, with perfect leaves and branches. — C.P. Cavafy

A month passes by and brings another month. Easy to guess what lies ahead: all of yesterday's boredom. And tomorrow ends up no longer like tomorrow. — C.P. Cavafy

Life Lessons by C.P. Cavafy

1. C.P. Cavafy's work emphasizes the importance of living life to the fullest, as it is fleeting and unpredictable.
2. He encourages readers to be mindful of their choices and actions, as they will shape their future and the world around them.
3. Cavafy's poetry also reflects on the power of nostalgia and the beauty of accepting life's impermanence.